Sunday, June 29, 2008

And the war drags on . . .

In an AP brief that runs today (at Marine Corps Times), they again misstate the facts: "A Marine who was declared absent without leave has been picked up here after being stopped on a traffic warrant. Joseph G. Cote's "Marine is arrested, turned over" (Nashua Telegraph) is no longer credited (see yesterday's entry) but AP did not originate or report the story, they merely summarized the work Cotes did. Arrested at a traffic stop? No, that's not what Cotes reported. Along with the desertion charge, Cotes had an outstanding warrant for a traffic violation of some kind. That's where the traffic warrant comes up but Jose Flores was not picked up at a traffic stop. Citing police Capt. Donald Breault, Cotes reported, "A Marine representative had contacted Hudson police and asked them to arrest Flores because he was deemed a deserter". It does matter. When the military has told the police to go to a parents' home in Colorado and search, when the military was calling police stations up and down California to alert them to Kyle Snyder, when 'traffic stops' turn out to be searching homes (one war resister picked up at a 'traffic stop') was actually picked up at his brother's home and discovered during the search. The military wants to lie and pretend all they do is enter a name in a data base after thirty days. The reality is an entire unit is patrolling the web looking for tidbits, checking out MySpace pages, phoning in tips to local police. It's time for the lying to stop and the AP has now made the same mistake two days in a row. At this point, it is no longer a mistake, it is a lie.

Here's what can be done. Canada's War Resisters Support Campaign will hold a "Rally to Stop the Deportation of Parkdale Resident Corey Glass" July 3rd, begins at 7:00 p.m. (with doors opening at six p.m.) at the May Robinson Building, 20 West Lodge, Toronto: "In 2002, Corey joined the Indiana National Guard. He was told he would not have to fight on foreign shores. But in 2005 he was sent to Iraq. What he saw there caused him to become a conscientious objector and he came to Canada. On May 21, 2008, he got his final order to leave Canada by July 10, 2008. Then on June 3 Parliament passed a motion for all the war resisters to stay in Canada. However the Harper government says it will ignore this motion." They are also asking for a July 2nd call-in. Diane Finley is the Immigration and Citizenship Minister and her phone numbers are (613) 996-4974 and (519) 426-3400 -- they also provide her e-mail addresses minister@cic.gc.ca ("minister" at "cic.gc.ca") and finled1@parl.gc.ca ("finled1" at "parl.gc.ca").

Following is a brief history of the movement’s actions and those actions' results, a primer of sorts for the "Dear Canada, Let them stay" campaign:Recently on June 3rd the Canadian Parliament passed an historic motion to officially welcome war resisters! It now appears, however, that theConservative government may disregard the motion. Iraq combat veteran turned courageous war resister, 25-year-old Sgt. Corey Glass of the Indiana National Guard is still scheduled to be deported July 10th.We will ask that the Canadian government respect the democratic decision of Parliament, the demonstrated opinion of the Canadian citizenry, the view of the United Nations, and millions of Americans by immediately implementing the motion and cease deportation proceedings against Corey Glass and other current and future war resisters.Join Courage to Resist, Veterans for Peace, and Project Safe Haven at Canadian Consulates across the United States.We mailed and delivered over 10,000 of the original letters to Canadianofficials. Please sign the new letter, "Dear Canada: Abide by resolution - Let U.S. war resisters stay!"http://www.couragetoresist.org/canadaAddress of the Canadian Consulate in Dallas:Consulate General of Canada750 North St. Paul Street, Suite 1700Dallas, TX 75201Tel: (214) 922-9806For more information:Courage to Resisthttp://www.couragetoresist.org510-488-3559(List of consulate vigils nationwide coming soon)

Use the links above for more information protests in Dallas, DC, San Francisco, Seattle, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, LA and NYC. In addition, Courage to Resist would like to organize actions in Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Miami, Achorage, Houston, Raleigh, Phoenix and San Diego and, if you're able to help on that, they ask you to call 510-488-3559.

They're just there to try and make the people free,But the way that they're doing it, it don't seem like that to me.Just more blood-letting and misery and tearsThat this poor country's known for the last twenty years,And the war drags on.-- words and lyrics by Mick Softly (available on Donovan's Fairytale)

Last Sunday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war hit the 4,102 mark. And tonight? 4113. Just Foreign Policy's counter estimates that 1,225,898 (the same as last Sunday).

Outrage over the mysterious operation has spread to the highest levels of the Iraqi government, which is demanding an explanation for how such a raid occurred in a province ostensibly under full Iraqi command."This is a Special Forces operation, an antiterrorism unit that operates almost independently so there's been no coordination with the local forces on the ground," said a high-ranking member of the Iraqi government who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the extreme sensitivity of the issue. "That's why it's so important to have a Status of Forces Agreement to regulate this relationship. As long as it's vague and open, these incidents will continue to happen."

Congress -- the Democratically controlled Congress elected in November 2006 to end the illegal war, given control of both houses of Congress -- did nothing (again) to end the illegal war. Pru notes Great Britain's Socialist Worker's "US Democrats back funds for endless war:"

About Me

We do not open attachments. Stop e-mailing them. Threats and abusive e-mail are not covered by any privacy rule. This isn't to the reporters at a certain paper (keep 'em coming, they are funny). This is for the likes of failed comics who think they can threaten via e-mails and then whine, "E-mails are supposed to be private." E-mail threats will be turned over to the FBI and they will be noted here with the names and anything I feel like quoting.
This also applies to anyone writing to complain about a friend of mine. That's not why the public account exists.